1964 Valiant AP5(Aust)/Plymouth Valiant(US) Project

[loudmouthaussie]

Wanted something cheap but classic to learn to paint on and its wound up being this nice little 1964 valiant AP5. Not a bad lookin car if you like aussie mopar!  Is unregistered so got the plates off my grandads 68 Valiant ute and used them to drive home. To any police reading - no I didnt, Im just kidding  Was a crap afternoon in pouring rain so a bit hairy at times. Passed a few bad accidents on motorway and was keeping fingers crossed. No power steer and drums all round. Yeah baby!  Hell these suckers didnt even come with a side mirror unless you ordered it special. Makes changing lanes just that little bit more exciting.

Pretty much an American Plymouth Valiant and were considered 'compact' by the american standards of the time. At 4.7 meteres or so they are quite substantial by todays standards though  The AP5 part stands for 'Australian Production' with the 5 meaning there are 5 home designed panels. Interior is better and engine stronger than the American counterpart they reckon.

Its a nice straight/rust free original numbers car. The young fella I bought it off bought it from the original owner earlier this year and it has all the books etc. Comes with a few spares too like; gearbox with syncromesh (so you can change into 1st while still rolling along. lol.), 2 drive shafts, instrument cluster etc. etc. He did a few things to the car as follows:---

-new exhaust
-new shocks all round
-new/recond. carbie
-gasket kit through engine
-new interior (just green & white vinyl OG style. nothin stoopid)
-new tyres all round

so the plan is to build a sorta kustom/lowrider thing. steelies painted red with caps & w'walls. gonna buy a few acces. like venetians, visor and dummies. thinkin about new darkish holden green to match the interior with flake and white roof without flake. pin striping of course aswell

should be a fun CHEAP project. i seem to have time to kill most days now with this job. just dont wanna get carried away. hopefully ill be able to part with it at the end. like to think ill at least get money invested back. would suit some rockabilly chick or young dude when finished i hope

[loudmouthaussie]

the rear screen was redesigned and is flatter than the US plymouth valiant


i will leave orig paint in engine bay i think (and dash) in case an enthusiast wants to take it back to stock one day 

this was the colour i was thinking of with white roof. it looks better in the flesh. goes nice and light in sun 

[loudmouthaussie]

OK so now for the bad stuff. Luckily theres not much (I hope) 

Old guy that had it took seatbelts out coz he didnt like them. 64 was first year of seatbelts in australia. Guy I bought it off says you dont have to have them in a pre 67 car. So Ill cross that bridge when I come to it at rego time I guess. Might be an idea to have something seat belt wise 

The right indicator just stays on and doesnt blink so i guess blinker box is stuffed. left seems to work fine. got new blinker box with it though so should be easy fix. reverse light flickers on and off so bad earth there somewhere.

It drives well on freeway but unsurprisingly probably needs wheel allignment. But when driving around the back streets around 70km or less in second and third it shudders a bit like youre in too high a gear for the speed. But that cant be it. Im thinking drive shaft out of balancce? Also a bit of a loud whirring from front when going up through the revs in first?? gearbox??

All that can wait though I spose

[loudmouthaussie]

scored this off ebay for $31  :cool: original one

[Bob T]

Good ol AP with the leaning Tower of Power 
A mate of mine has a AP5 and an AP6. The 5 has a 318 in it and 70's purple sparkle paint. He bought it for $800 and drove it around Sydney before he loaded it with all his diesel grease monkey tools and bought it over here to NZ. Worked out cheaper than trying to freight his tools and belongings - just packed the old girl to the roof. It been here 8 years and still got NSW plates 
The 6 is a regal and has the better running gear and trim but rusty as, so will serve as donor ..

Your greenie looks like a pretty straight old bus, good score 

[loudmouthaussie]

thanks mate. post pics of your mates purple AP5 if youve got any 

[Bob T]

They'd been on the juice 


http://www.youtube.com/user/DaveMopar#p/u/9/MBTqUwdDdvM

[loudmouthaussie]

cool AP5 mate 

pic of all the spares that were in the boot when i bought it



when carpet and spare pulled out boot floor was found to be rust free! very dusty though and needs a good clean up. plan to leave original incase next owner wants to take back to original. plus i love originality!
want to track down original jack and wheel brace that are missing if i can.



Have started the tear down already. been removing badges etc. this looks like it hasnt been removed since new perhaps. last guy def didnt take em off to paint. im not removing everything but this is an easy one to get off!

[loudmouthaussie]

[loudmouthaussie]

Gotta love these old 60's cars. indicators now working perfectly after replacing the blinker box for $10. other tail light issues seem to have been solved by some simple steel wooling of connection points. cant believe dude managed to get overspray on some of the bulbs! no wonder lights were dull. lol. even painted over the plastic number plate light lense!

guess thinners or petrol might do the trick on it if i use only a little then wash in water straight away? will give it a go anyway.

had a go at cleaning the dusty filth from the boot area too. was in there for a couple hours and it still needs a going over. original owner must have lived somewhere very dusty!

the rear quarter wells were about 2 inches deep with dust so actually had to get the vaccuum out.

noticed front section of exhaust has a few small holes in it. now if you replaced the rear half of exhaust why not just do it all? 

[loudmouthaussie]

before repaint of badges and hubcaps

after :0)

[Bob T]

Nice work   ,


Whadya got those weber 45 filters in the boot for? , you got triples going on there sloper Honcho ? eh eh 

and Hemi Performance ( i think) is doing thoses blower kits for 225's 

[CharcoalCharger]

Funny how around here the license plates say 'classic' or 'antique'.  There they just say 'old'.  Nice little car, and great job on the emblems/hub caps.

[loudmouthaussie]

Nice work   ,


Whadya got those weber 45 filters in the boot for? , you got triples going on there sloper Honcho ? eh eh 

and Hemi Performance ( i think) is doing thoses blower kits for 225's 

ha ha. yeah they fit and for some reason former owner mustve thought they would stop making them i guess. same deal with oil filters. got 3. LOL. not complaining though 

[loudmouthaussie]

Funny how around here the license plates say 'classic' or 'antique'.  There they just say 'old'.  Nice little car, and great job on the emblems/hub caps.

ha ha! thats been bought up here before. its actually "QLD" the abreviation for my state of "Queensland" (north east australia) which fits western europe inside 3 times over 

the older original plates from the 60's which had a thicker more basic font REALLY looked like they said old 

[loudmouthaussie]

scored almost all the spares/accessories i need today at valiant spares. only $118 all up (coz i didnt have the $120)

-orig bumper jack and wheel brace
-hubcap to replace my damaged/kerbed one
-dash vents
-stone guard/front cowling panel
-sun visor

think i will leave sun visor as is for that kustom decaying look

only things left are flapper/portawalls for the tyres and dummy spots (still undecided on them)

[Bob T]

Hell, I found a similar visor for my old 61 EK wagon at a swap meet for $50, got it dipped and some of it dissapeared  , looked good on tho. Cause as we know, The Guy with the most period options Wins 

Got to paint it oldman green underneath it just like your grandfather would've   


( it was a few scary moments drilling the centre and pillar mounts for it tho, jeez I hated to drill into that original car

[loudmouthaussie]

yeah putting the side mirror on is gonna suck but you tried driving in modern traffic w/o one? no thanks! 

these sun visors just bolt up on each side, no central mount. they slide on over the trims around the windscreen 

should set it off after flake paint and bright white roof 

just for shits and giggles i think all colours used will be from 2009-2010 holden range

poison ivy body
heron white roof
sprint red wheels

[loudmouthaussie]

so the big rub back job begins. will probably be my last post for awhile. figure this will take a few weeks to finish

[loudmouthaussie]

C-Pillar only nice surface rust 


For some reason 'they' decided to fill the indentation where the trim goes on left side 


you dont often find sills this rust free on a 64 car 


boot/trunk lid, roof, ab&C pillars now all rubbed back 

[loudmouthaussie]

got a bit done today on day off. front right door rubbed back, front seat removed and carpets, floor cleaned up, door weather strips removed. no nasty suprises. couple tiny holes through the floor but nothing to get excited about.



this was more disturbing though. angle grinder cut and rough weld up inner wheel arch to c-pillar. another grinder cut into parcel shelf too. must have taken a decent hit around there sometime.

[loudmouthaussie]

period brochure

[loudmouthaussie]

latest accessory 

[loudmouthaussie]

more accessories

[loudmouthaussie]

not much progress with working away from home moving 50 tonne beams around for 2 weeks, but managed to get the dummies fitted on w/e trip back.
look pretty good i reckon, yeah there will be one on other side too :0)

[loudmouthaussie]

sucked driving w/o a side mirror so put this on. got it with my 70 charger. dont know why as it isnt really the same as factory one  looks the part on this car though 

[loudmouthaussie]

well with an entire day off i managed to get a bit done!

finished sanding back the front left guard

degreased and pressure washed the door hinges and catches

removed headlights and bezels

knocked in a few dents on rear 1/4 (yeah 'knocked in' coz he mustve thrown stuff in boot and dented panel 'outwards')

removed front bumper and a few other odds and ends.



got some self tapping screws so these things wont come flyin off on the highway. typical shit screws that arent right for the job with this made in taiwan gear.





test fit the sun visor. love it all rusted lookin







headlights off! these screws were giving me trouble last week so gave em a spray and walked away. got hold of a nice new long handled screw driver and off they came :0)





off comes the bumper. 4 bolts. nice and simple but front ones not so easy to access!





pretty happy with how inside of bumper looks. in keeping with my belief that this car has been garaged for most of its life in a dry climate. perhaps rural vic.





could always smell god aweful stink bugs whenever i parked next to this citrus tree. now i know why. check the nest out! Queensland. ya gotta love it ;0)

[loudmouthaussie]

another productive day of rubbing back, removing rear bumper and painting brackets and bolts
getting into some painting is actually starting to feel like its around the corner!

[chargerman67]

This car has a lot of character. Keep up the good work.

[loudmouthaussie]

thanks chargerman. will do. cant wait to lay down some paint after all this prep and parts resto work 

[loudmouthaussie]

was just gonna bog over this crease in rear 1/4 but thought id have a go at some old school dent removal. can only get your hand in down behind the dent so poppin it out with tools i have would have been impossible. so only way was drill hole, put screw through and pull dent out with pliers and brute force. came out pretty well. not perfect of course but at least ill use less bog on it.
heres a during and after;